580 Transactions of the American Institute. 



illumestating gas. 



Prof. Frankland, in the course of his last lecture before the Royal 

 Institution, London, on coal gas, said he had just had the illumi- 

 nating power of the gas supplied to different large towns, tested by 

 standard sperm caudles, and now holds written certificates of the 

 results, as follows: Aberdeen, 35.0; Paisley, 30.3; Hawick, 30.0; 

 Greenock, 28.5; Edinburgh, 28.0; Inverness, 25.0; Manchester, 

 22.0; Liverpool, 22.0; Carlisle, 16.0; Berlin, 15.5; Birmingham, 

 15.0; Paris, 12.3; London, 12.1; Vienna, 9.0. It will be seen that 

 the gas supplied to Aberdeen gives nearly three times the light of 

 the average gas furnished for London, which, in particular instances, 

 only equals nine candles. The gas in London is now worse than 

 it was many years ago, although the methods of manufacture have 

 been cheapened by the discoveries of science; all new inventions in 

 this direction have been eagerly taken up by the gas companies, 

 who, so far as is known, have not adopted a single invention which 

 would benefit the consumer. The London gas is highly adulterated 

 with sulphur compounds, and is damaging to works of art and 

 beauty. Dr. Frankland concluded by saying, it should have an 

 illuminating power of twenty candles, below w^hich no gas is fit for 

 household pm-poses. 



LILIPUTIAN ENEMIES. 



Under this title C. F, Sprague describes, in The American Jour- 

 nal of Horticulture, the various species of fungi, known as rust, 

 smut, bunt and mildew, which are of the simplest sti'ucture. 

 Though the individual plants are so iufinitesimally small, they 

 reproduce with such wonderful rapidity, and in such amazing pro- 

 fusion, as to destroy whole crops by their ravages. Their mycelium 

 penetrates the soft tissues of their prey, and on reaching the sur- 

 face breaks forth in an eruption, which allows no cure. A piece 

 of glass, on which lie spread thousands of their spores, would 

 exhibit to the eye a faint mist, and yet this mist will increase into a 

 black cloud, which envelopes and destroys a field of nodding grain. 

 Experiments of all sorts have been resorted to, to prevent the 

 attacks of these omnipresent parasites; but their occurrence is 

 mainly due to atmospheric influences. Their spores are every- 

 where, and can be called into germination by circumstances favor- 

 able to their growth, either moisture or drouth. All fungi arc 

 more or less meteoric in occurrence. Season upon season may pass 

 without a sign of them, and then, owing to favorable influence, 



